Last week, the U.S. Copyright Office announced the release of a public draft of the
third edition of the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office
Practices, the administrative manual for the Register of Copyrights. A significant
achievement spanning over 1200 pages, this is the first major
revision in decades. Unlike prior editions, which served primarily
as an internal guide to Copyright Office staff, this edition was
drafted with an eye towards also serving "as a guidebook for
authors, copyright licensees, practitioners, scholars, the courts
and members of the general public."
The Compendium contains sections on both the copyright
registration process and substantive law, with full chapters on
specific types of work (literary works, performing arts, website
content, etc.). The content of this edition is being discussed a
little more broadly than one might have expected, because Chapter
306 states that a "photograph taken by a monkey" cannot
be registered. Although the
